Meta Starts Eliminating Jobs in Shift To Find AI Talent (msn.com) 35
Meta began notifying staff of job cuts on Monday, kick-starting a process that will terminate thousands of people as the company cracks down on "low-performers" and scours for new talent to dominate the AI race. From a report: Meta workers who were let go were notified via email, and the company is offering US-based employees severance packages that include 16 weeks of salary, in addition two weeks for each year of service, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because the details weren't public. Employees whose review merited a bonus will still get one, and staff will still receive stock awards as part of the upcoming vesting cycle later this month, the people said.
Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg told employees that Meta would cut 5% of its workforce -- as many 3,600 people -- with a focus on staff who "aren't meeting expectations," Bloomberg News first reported in mid-January. Affected US-based employees would be notified on Feb. 10, while international employees could learn later, Zuckerberg said last month. In a separate message to managers, the Facebook co-founder said the cuts would create headcount for the company to hire the "strongest talent."
Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg told employees that Meta would cut 5% of its workforce -- as many 3,600 people -- with a focus on staff who "aren't meeting expectations," Bloomberg News first reported in mid-January. Affected US-based employees would be notified on Feb. 10, while international employees could learn later, Zuckerberg said last month. In a separate message to managers, the Facebook co-founder said the cuts would create headcount for the company to hire the "strongest talent."
Name Change (Score:4, Interesting)
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I wonder if they'll change their name again, since the Metaverse fad has quietly died, and everyone shifted to AI
That's why I call it Meta[stasize].
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Maybe Faicebook. That's obnoxious enough that it could just work.
"Strongest talent" As in H-1Bs? (Score:1)
We have heard this all before. Last year had two H-1B lotteries, each of them having 100,000 people coming in, every one of those visa holders putting an American on the employment roles.
This losing the bottom 5% is stupid. This is what managers are supposed to be doing, as this is something taught in MBA school, and a requirement to get the degree, how to find and weed out low performers.
Just let management do what they need to, no need for these layoffs, unless a company is just cloaking the job sheddin
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MBAs are taught to get the most bang for the buck...
So yeah, the H1Bs are almost certainly safe
They're cheap
Nothing is more expensive than a cheap programmer (Score:3)
MBAs are taught to get the most bang for the buck... So yeah, the H1Bs are almost certainly safe They're cheap
While not universally known, it is well known that nothing is more expensive than a cheap programmer. Someone overseas may be 1/3 the cost, but if it takes him 4x as long to do the job...you lost money. Most big tech firms know this, hence why they have a mix of offices over the globe. Otherwise, they would have left the valley long ago. They could set up shop 2h away for far cheaper...in shitty cities...or just move all operations to the Philippines. They maintain offices in high cost areas purely for
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MBAs are taught to get the most bang for the buck... So yeah, the H1Bs are almost certainly safe They're cheap
While not universally known, it is well known that nothing is more expensive than a cheap programmer. Someone overseas may be 1/3 the cost, but if it takes him 4x as long to do the job...
It's a win-win solution for programmers. One job for the cheap programmer to write code, and that creates two more jobs to fix the parts that don't work!
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You mean I could be an English speaking programmer in the Philippines?
I would have to consider it.
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Are they?
I can't claim to be very familiar with the legislation but I thought they were supposed to have the same starting salary as resident or citizen.
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Why import H1Bs when they could be hired at lower costs in their native countries?.
You can exploit them more thoroughly if you can threaten them with deportation if they lose their job. Plus it has a depressive effect on local wages, allowing you to get the local talent cheaper.
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It's more difficult for an employer to fire someone outside of the United States. Employment at-will [mostly] only exists in the United States. The rest of the world uses the "Just Cause" employment standard. In most countries you would need to document the poor performance, as well as disclose the real reasons for firing the employee. Additionally, there would be a notice period for any layoff unless it was for gross misconduct. In the united states, you can just say " Your services are no longer requir
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... no need for these layoffs, unless a company is just cloaking the job shedding for picking up more H-1Bs.
I came here to suggest that's exactly what's happening, prompted by the line in TFS that says "the cuts would create headcount for the company to hire the 'strongest talent'". To me, that translates directly as "we now have an administration which supports and even encourages us in firing citizens so we can bring in cheaper, easier-to-abuse hires from India".
I see the generous-seeming termination packages being given out as merely an insurance policy. In effect they're saying "this Constitution-defying radi
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I see the generous-seeming termination packages being given out as merely an insurance policy. In effect they're saying "this Constitution-defying radical-governance experiment is very new, so we don't want to burn all our bridges just yet". But if the new administration continues to wipe its ass with the Constitution while facing no effective opposition, then the next round of layoffs will be "Boom! You're gone - no severance, no package, don't let the door hit your ass on the way out".
I don't see how these severance packages have anything to do with the current administration in Washington DC. Meta has already embraced the me-too-isms of eliminating fact-checking and DEI programs, effectively falling in line with the messaging from Trump's White House. Why would they waffle on severance packages? I don't recall that Trump has said anything about them.
As for severance vs. no severance ... companies send a message to prospective employees when they have a history of offering offer severanc
don't fire people on an monday (Score:1)
We find it's always better to fire people on a Friday. Studies have statistically shown that there's less chance of an incident if you do it at the end of the week.
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is that true for remote workers too?
if you fired me on a Monday after I made the commute all the way to HQ, i would very likely go postal.
call me up on a Sunday afternoon to tell me I've been canned & won't have to make the 2 hr trip, that would likely be a quite different reaction
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has the ai told them (Score:3)
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As long as the stock price goes up they don't care.
Not meeting expectations (Score:5, Insightful)
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Yes it shouldn't be allowed because the employer looking to fill an open position can use the candidate's the date of separation, and past news articles to deduce whether or the layoff was for performance or not.
In fact, this should be treated as a form of defamation.
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This is why people like Suckerburg should be sued into oblivion. If we had any type of labor protection in the US or at companies like Bookface, there would be no firing people willy-nilly in order to gain a bump in share price. Which is all that's happening here. The talking avatar that is Zuckerburg has to constantly generate press in order to get the market excited about the stock he owns most of. Otherwise his value tanks and he's no longer the 3rd or 4th (reported) richest being on the planet.
Re:Mmmmm... learn from HP (Score:5, Interesting)
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For AI, most people are untrainable. As a starting point, it is the same as asking, is it possible to train all students to get an A in math. Even this seems be hard and studying is easy compared to doing new scientific discoveries.
Low-Hanging Fruit (Score:5, Interesting)
They might want to start with that low-performing employee who tossed away over $50 billion over the last 4 years on a metaverse bet that virtually (ha!) nobody gives a crap about.
A metaverse that (at least initially) was touted as the future of work. Oh, the irony!
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Imagine renaming your entire company because you think your Second Life reboot is going to do any better lol.
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The rat race (Score:2)
How to ruin a business in 10 easy steps (Score:2)
As an alternative, tech workers must unionize and form worked-owned co-ops that are focused on long-term stability rather than short-term profits and consultant business fads.
We can infer ... (Score:2)
That Meta will select layoff victims "with a focus on staff who 'aren't meeting expectations'" suggests that they are intending to include workers who do meet or exceed expectations. But it gets worse than that, as there are reports [businessinsider.com] that workers who had good track records of performance reviews were suddenly downgraded without explanation, presumably to meet the quota for the mass layoff.
Zuckerberg said "the cuts would create headcount for the company to hire the 'strongest talent.'" So, the same executiv